Murder, She Said (1961)

MGM purchased the rights to most of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books in late 1959, planning to feature the character in a TV series. Instead, the studio’s British division in Elstree created four films, starting with MURDER, SHE SAID, that became huge fan favorites. Although nothing like the prim spinster in the novels, Margaret Rutherford became most people’s image of the amateur sleuth, playing her as a daring eccentric. In her first outing, when nobody believes she saw a woman murdered through her train window, she takes on the investigation herself, eventually landing a job as a domestic in a houseful of suspects. At Rutherford’s insistence, the series co-stars her husband, Stringer Davis. The first film also features future Miss Marple Joan Hickson. 

d. George Pollock, 87m, 35mm